Investigation of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Austenite Stainless Steel 304 during Tempering and Cryogenic Heat Treatment

Abstract

In the present study, the influence of heat treatment (tempering & cryogenic) on the grain orientation and few important mechanical properties of Austenite Stainless Steel 304 (ASS 304) are examined. The significant mechanical properties like ultimate strength, elongation percentage and surface hardness etc., of the experimented and untreated specimens are computed using pre standard methods and the micrographs of the specimens was conducted using metallurgical microscope. The effect of strain rate ranging from lower to higher strain rates 0.001s-1 to 0.1s-1, on true stress - true strain behaviour of tempered austenitic stainless steel 304 is investigated. Experimental results exhibited that the mechanical behaviour of ASS 304 can be reformed and improvised by several heat treatment procedures for a specific application. The results showed that the cryogenic treated specimens indicate lowest tensile strength, hardness and highest percent of elongation value compared with tempered specimen gave the maximum tensile strength, hardness and minimum percent of elongation in length value.